The disclosed embodiments relate generally to methods and systems for creating printed objects having three-dimensional structure.
Printing systems are no longer limited to devices that print text and images on two-dimensional substrates. Greeting cards, pop-up books, and packages are examples of printed substrates that can move from a flat structure to a three dimensional structure through manipulation of folds, creases, cuts and perforations. It is desirable that printing systems include or collaborate with variable structural data generating and finishing systems so that together they can print text and images on a substrate and also perform structural functions such as cutting, perforating, or scoring for folds so that the resulting substrate can be manipulated into a three-dimensional structure.
Personalized dimensional items are highly desirable, but expensive to produce, as the production must be done manually or with a support system that can be expensive or inefficient. Current structural printing systems implement a set of instructions and can mass-produce similar items, but the systems have limited ability to customize print jobs with structural features. These limitations can cause delays in assembly time as the system is reprogrammed or manually manipulated to change images and/or substrates,
Prior systems exist for the production of customized two-dimensional documents. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,948,115 to Aizikowitz et al., the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses a method of producing a personalized document using a variable information page description language output stream. However, such systems have limited ability to efficiently produce three-dimensional and/or structural information for the documents.
This document describes systems that solve one or more of the problems listed above.